Hmmmm....aaaaaaaaahh.....hmmmmmm....haaaaaaa"
Osi looked cynical as the dibia wailed like a man in pain and stared hard at pieces of stones and cowries on the ground.
The dibia had arrived the compound just before night fall and he had arrived wrapped up in some kind of white material with some kind of white powdered substance painted on his body. A young boy of about thirteen accompanied him carrying a folded mat and some other strange items and Osi couldn't help but wonder about the young lad. How could someone so young be in this kind of life already? He whispered his thoughts to pastor Bartholomew who replied him with a look that conveyed 'silence would be very much appreciated'
Immediately the boy spread the mat and the dibia got down to business.
It was a taboo to be in the midst of women so the women had since left before the dibia arrived.
Osi wished he could leave too but pastor Bartholomew had advice him they wait till night.
Stevenson on the other hand looked on, he was intrigued by what was unfolding before his eyes and wished he had a note pad and pen or his camera. He would have to rely on memory. This was priceless for his book.
"Yeeeee....ooooooo......aaaaaaaa" the dibia threw a bunch of cowries on the floor and studied it intensely after which he asked for a bowl of water.
Pa Kenneth directed the boy to a keg and the boy proceeded to fill a bowl.
The leaders all looked on eagerly with hope and anticipation on their faces, this was it: they were going to know who the devil was.
"mamaseimamaseimamaseimamaseimamakoosai!!!
More silence
"Askentelebarabaralewa!!!!"
The dibia looked away from the bowl and nodded to the young boy who spoke in Igbo:
"This demon is just like wind...it is like the breeze..
One can not catch the breeze with a net..."
"mamaseimamasamamakosa...mamakosmamasei!!"
"Just as one can not see the back of his head with his eyes...this demon can not be seen"
The young boy intepreted again. He seemed to be the only one who could inteprete the dibia's words which to Osi sounded like gibberish and like a lyric from a Michael Jackson song.
"This is no man....its a spirit..we need to appease the spirit, the gods require sacrifice..."
Osi was already in a foul mood when he finally got home. He had just witnessed something that troubled his spirit greatly.
Pastor Bartholomew had advised him "forget about the boy, forget about the whole incantation..sadly somethings can never change"
When he got home, he met the deacon on his high horse as usual, "we are leaving first thing tomorrow morning" the deacon announced announced.
"Leaving...leaving where?"
"back to PortHarcourt of course...this crusade is a failure, although its not all your fault"
Osi was not in the mood for this, he felt dirty from all what his eyes had seen today, from the dead body then the traditional exercise that has taken place with the
dibia.
He went straight to bed without uttering a word.
The reverend's call woke him up around 2 in the morning. He struggled to open his eyes, trying to locate the phone and hitting someone (maybe Gregory) in the face.
"H-hello"
"Osi...you were sleeping"
Osi knew what was coming next and so he said it along with the reverend "men ought to pray always and not faint...I know it sir, but yesterday was really overwhelming sir"
"Yes...the deacon left some disturbing messages for me..why don't you tell me everything that's going on"
It was almost 3 when Osi ended the call. Talking to the Reverend always seemed to calm him down, he felt energized again as he got up from the bed, he couldn't sleep again. He knew what he had to do: pray...pray and plan!
*Morning*
"Oga I don't want to go...I'd come back" Samuel assured Osi as he carried the deacon's bags outside.
The deacon was going, they were all staying. They still had five more days remaining for the crusade and they were determined to see it through.
"What do we do now?" Ovie asked as they watched the bus drive away.
"Pastor Bartholomew said, the girl would be likely buried this evening, we should
help officiate and counsel the family"
"But before then? What do we do?" Bukky asked "I'm tired of staying indoors all day"
"I think you all should stay behind and pray for direction, I feel in my spirit we should prepare to have the Virgil service like we planned tonight"
They nodded in agreement but then Ovie asked "where are you going now?"
Osi stopped at the door "I have some directions I'd like to explore"
"You shouldn't go alone, I'd come with you"
De Nwachukwu and Pa Kenneth waited the arrival of Dé John in the latter's compound.
Pa Kenneth had a chewing stick in his mouth while Dé Nwachukwu smoked his pipe.
"So we need three native fowls, the head of an alligator 30 pieces of cocoyam, a pregnant bat and tobacco plants" pa Kenneth said as he paced round.
"Hmmm...old one, it is that tobacco I don't understand...so the gods smoke?"
Pa Kenneth sighed "one doesn't have to be colour blind to take the colour red as yellow...my brother let us do our part and let the dibia do his" the elder man advised
"things are getting worse we need any kind of solution right now"
Amara had refused to let her sister leave the house that morning just as her father instructed.
She turned a deaf ear to Joy's whining, shouting and rude remarks as her sister threw tantrums with vigour like it was an Olympic event.
"Amara you can not keep me in this house o......Esther's house is not far o...oya please na...I won't be long..its not fair....I hate you!!"
Amara only chuckled to herself as she busied herself with picking the melon seeds.
She heard someone open the gate of the compound and hurried, thinking it was her sister trying to sneak out.
It was Paul.
"My dear...how are you this morning?" He asked cheerfully.
"I'm fine...what of Oluchi?"
"Oluchi is fine, she's helping mother with something but she said she'd be here very soon"
Amara nodded and was about to turn but she stopped, she was not one to beat round the bush, never had been "Paul, please what are you doing here..?"
"Why..I came to see you" he sounded surprised
"Please Paul, I don't want to give you the wrong impression...you know I'm not interested in any form of relationship?"
Paul raised his hands "heeey...we're just friends, after what happened yesterday I had to check on you"
"But you asked my father for my hand didn't you?"
"Yes Amara..because I love you, but we are friends...friendship comes first"
She shook her head but suddenly a thought occurred to her "Paul...how did you know Chinaza's father was ill?"
He blinked "what?"
"Chinaza...the other night you asked her how her father was...how did you know he had fallen sick?"
"Sick...oh!...I was catching up with Oluchi about everyone and I asked about Chinaza...it was very sad"
Amara frowned, something was still not adding up. Paul was looking at her strangely and she was about to ask him why he had lied to her. His sister had told her just yesterday that he never asked about Chinaza..
Her eyes were drawn to the gate when she heard voices and shuffling of feet from outside.
She could see the outline of two pairs of shoes from underneath the gate.
She yanked the gate open just as the fat pastor had raised his hands to knock. The tall pastor was with him.
"Sorry to disturb you please is this Dé Nwachukwu's....you...Amara" Osi said when he noticed her.
"Pastor Osi..." She smiled "welcome..good morning" she greeted Ovie.
"Morning...is this De Nwachukwu's house please?"
"Yes he's my father...come in"
The two men entered the compound and she closed the gate.
Osi noticed the young man frowning at him and offered his hands. The man shook his rather grudgingly.
Osi gave Ovie a look he didn't have trouble deciphering 'engage this man...I need to talk with the lady'
"Hope your dad is around?" He asked Amara
"Actually he stepped out"
"Okay I'd like to talk with you then...just some questions I have, maybe you can help me out"
"Sure, no problem" she took his hand "let's go inside"
"Actually we were..." Paul's protest was cut short by Ovie.
"Mister, the Lord didn't bring me here by chance, I have a special word for you today"
And so Ovie held Paul back, opening his bible to read a scripture while the young
man looked after Amara and Osi as they entered the house.
"Would you like anything to eat or drink?"
"No..I had breakfast not too long ago"
"Okay...you wanted to see De Nwachukwu?"
"Yes...I spoke with him yesterday..." Osi's eyes flew round the sitting room and rested on a charcoal drawing of a woman.
She looked like an elder version of Amara, she was beautiful and the artist had managed to capture the intensity of her eyes.
"You saw my father yesterday..." Amara prompted, whenever a young man saw her
father it was always for one reason. This time she was surprised she wouldn't mind at all.
"Yes..." Osi tore his eyes from the painting and focused on the younger version.
"Yes...erm...about Ozioma, the first girl to be killed, did you know her very well?"
"Oh...we were friends...really good friends" she replied.
She and Oluchi had been the closest but Ozioma had been their friend, the trio used to do a lot of things together until one afternoon a farmer had gone to till his soil and found her dead body partially buried. Wicked things had been done to her.
Amara's eyes grew misty as she remembered and Osi felt bad "I'm very sorry to bring it up...I just have a strong feeling that a very important clue lies in her murder"
She looked at him strangely. "I thought you are a pastor?"
"I am...or I hope so but I feel this urge in my heart and I need to find out about her"
When she was silent he got up "if you don't feel like talking about it I understand, I'm sorry"
"No its fine...what do you want to know?
To be continued...
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